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who had stood combing
his long fair hair, and making contemptuous gestures as the Rogation
procession passed in the morning. He and his comrades began
offensively to scoff at the two young men for having taken part in the
procession, uttering the blasphemies which the invocation of our
Blessed Lord was wont to call forth.
Verronax turned wrathfully round, a hasty challenge passed, a rapid
exchange of blows; and while the Arvernian received only a slight
scratch, the Goth fell slain before the hovel. His comrades were
unarmed and intimidated. They rushed back to fetch weapons from the
house of Deodatus, and there had been full time to take Columba safely
home, Verronax and his dog stalking statelily in the rear as her
guardians.
"Thou shouldst have sought thine impregnable crag, my son," said the
Senator sadly.
"To bring the barbarian vengeance upon this house?" responded
Verronax.
"Alas, my son, thou know'st mine oath."
"I know it, my father."
"It forbids not thy ransoming thyself."
Verronax smiled slightly, and touched the collar at his throat.

"This is all the gold that I possess."
The Senator rapidly appraised it with his eye. There was a regular tariff
on the lives of free Romans, free Goths, guests, and trusted men of the
King; and if the deceased were merely a LITE, or freeman of the lowest
rank, it was just possible that the gold collar might purchase its master's
life, provided he were not too proud to part with the ancestral badge.
By this time the tribunal had been reached--a special portion of the
peristyle, with a curule chair, inlaid with ivory, placed on a tesselated
pavement, as in the old days of the Republic, and a servant on each side
held the lictor's axe and bundle of rods, which betokened stern Roman
justice, wellnigh a mockery now. The forum of the city would have
been the regular place, but since an earthquake had done much damage
there, and some tumults had taken place among the citizens, the seat of
judgment had by general consent been placed in the AEmilian
household as the place of chief security, and as he was the accredited
magistrate with their Gothic masters, as Sidonius had been before his
banishment.
As Sidonius looked at the grave face of the Senator, set like a rock, but
deadly pale, he thought it was no unworthy representative of Brutus or
Manlius of old who sat on that seat.
Alas! would he not be bound by his fatal oath to be only too true a
representative of their relentless justice?
On one side of the judgment-seat stood Verronax, towering above all
around; behind him Marina and Columba, clinging together, trembling
and tearful, but their weeping restrained by the looks of the Senator,
and by a certain remnant of hope.
To the other side advanced the Goths, all much larger and taller men
than any one except the young Gaulish chieftain. The foremost was a
rugged-looking veteran, with grizzled locks and beard, and a sunburnt
face. This was Meinhard, the head of the garrison on Deodatus's farm, a
man well known to AEmilius, and able to speak Latin enough to hold
communication with the Romans. Several younger men pressed rudely

behind him, but they were evidently impressed by the dignity of the
tribunal, though it was with a loud and fierce shout that they recognised
Verronax standing so still and unmoved.
"Silence!" exclaimed the Senator, lifting his ivory staff.
Meinhard likewise made gestures to hush them, and they ceased, while
the Senator, greeting Meinhard and inviting him to share his seat of
authority, demanded what they asked.
"Right!" was their cry. "Right on the slayer of Odorik, the son of Odo,
of the lineage of Odin, our guest, and of the King's trust."
"Right shall ye have, O Goths," returned AEmilius. "A Roman never
flinches from justice. Who are witnesses to the deed? Didst thou behold
it, O Meinhard, son of Thorulf?"
"No, noble AEmilius. It had not been wrought had I been present; but
here are those who can avouch it. Stand forth, Egilulf, son of Amalrik."
"It needs not," said Verronax. "I acknowledge the deed. The Goth
scoffed at us for invoking a created Man. I could not stand by to hear
my Master insulted, and I smote him, but in open fight, whereof I bear
the token."
"That is true," said Meinhard. "I know that Verronax, the Arvernian,
would strike no coward blow. Therefore did I withhold these comrades
of Odorik from rushing on thee in their fury; but none the less art thou
in feud with Odo, the father of Odorik, who will require of thee either
thy blood or the wehrgeld."
"Wehrgeld I have none to pay," returned Verronax, in the same calm
voice.
"I have sworn!" said AEmilius